Where's spring?

I am tired of overcast, gloomy, sucky days. Let's just skip over the rest of Feb. and March and go straight to April..................

Had kind of a frustrating morning, didn't sleep well the past couple of nights so woke up in a grumpy mood, James wasn't much better. I'd left my big truck at Little Rock over the weekend to have it serviced, get the batteries replaced, and fix the dead qualcomm. Well I get to the yard this morning and my qualcomm is still dead and 1 out of the 4 batteries were replaced. Turns out they had replaced the dome (I'd only been complaining about it not working properly for 7 months) but hadn't checked the wiring so the second new dome also shorted out because part of the wiring had gotten against the exhaust system and burned through the insulation. Truck voltage was also low and barely turned over because if you put 1 new battery with 3 worn out batteries it just destroys the new battery. They found 4 used batteries that weren't too bad so hopefully that will work until Tues. evening when I can go back thru to have everything replaced with new ones.

Oh yeah, my load has cancelled out for Monday so will not reload until Tues. At least dispatch had let me know ahead of time so I wouldn't have to spend a day in the truck with nothing to do for 24 hrs. It's just going to put everything kind of tight for getting back for the 1/2 marathon on Sunday.

On the happier side, I did get to eat at Jason's Deli for lunch and shop at Target for a bit.

Ran 6.25 miles this afternoon. Started out from my house and ran all but the last 2 sections of the bicycle trail that are south of Beebe-Capps. Timed it out so that I could meet James at his big truck when he was ready to leave that way I could drive the pick-up home for him and also wouldn't have to make an extra trip back. It took 3.5 miles before my legs loosened up today but once they did it was a great run. It's odd how you can absolutely not want to go out but after 1 (or 3) miles you're wondering WHY you didn't want to in the first place.

James' knee is still out of commission so he will be starting all over again once it heals up this time. Hoped it wouldn't take as long for him to bounce back this time but I think it's taking longer.

Lesson of the day

Other than don't stare at the ground when being photographed is don't wear red to a race in Arkansas if you want to stand out. I think a quarter of the runners today were wearing the crimson hue. Whoooo pig sooie!!!!!!!!

Penguin Run 5k 2008

Finish line!!

Penguin Run 5k

Today was the Penguin Run 5k at Batesville, AR. Now, I have a love/hate relationship with the races at Batesville. On one hand, they are some of the nicest people with well set-up races, albeit very challenging courses. On the other, my 2 worst races have been at Batesville. Now, we're not talking time-wise, just me making rookie mistakes (not taking a final bathroom break at the Healthsouth 4m) or trying to run a race when I feel horrible (Sara Low 5k). Today I had an excellent race and a new pr!!!!!!!!

James describing how cold it washttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INIHxgOy14s

It was on the chilly side, around 33-35 F and overcast. Everybody was bundled up and hunched over (don't laugh too hard, that's cold for us). Oh, did I mention that the 5k started and ended beside the White River, that made it feel even colder and the sound of the rushing water exacerbated the shivering. I didn't start any further up in the crowd than normal but I did start at a faster than usual pace.

We started out from Kennedy Park went uphill and crossed the river on the shoulder of Hwy 167, turned east (right) on Myers, the small hills started here. Turned right on 20th, followed it around and turned right on Chaney which curved around into River Rd. Followed River back to Myers and back across the White River on the shoulder of the bridge again back into Kennedy Park.

First mile--8:12, so right on pace and feeling good.

Mile 2--16:14, a little faster than mile one, still good but shoulders are starting to tighten up

Mile 2 thru 2.8--Getting a little winded and nauseous. Seriously contemplating throwing up over the bridge railing into the White River. This is a new one for me, normally I'm not going that fast!! I pass Carol that I'd met at last weeks 15k and again she is just as bubbly as ever. I bet her students love having her for a teacher.

Mile 2.8 (approx.) thru 3.1--I had enough left in me to kick past the guy I'd been following. I was so surprised to get by him that I had an extra surge of adrenaline and was able to put more distance between us than I expected and almost missed where the finish line chute was :-)

Final time was 23:56.281. My previous pr was from last December on a super flat course with a time of 25:08. Overall, I finished 19th out of 67 runners and fourth overall female. Woo-hoo!!! An improvement of 72 seconds, how am I going to top this? That was my goal for this summer.

Saw Daylean from Heber Springs at the race this morning, we'd met at the Judsonia 5k last fall. She's also another bubbly person that has never met a stranger--I wish I was like that naturally but I have to work on being a more outgoing person. She said that she hadn't been able to run as much since then--her daughter had been burned severely when she fell into hot antifreeze but was doing ok now thank goodness. She had a finish time of just under 26 minutes so she still did excellent. Daylean said she almost didn't recognize me with my arms covered by long sleeves.

The finisher's medal

This race benefitted the Special Olympics and some of the runners afterwards did the polar bear plunge. Not me though, way too chicken!!

Ack!! Just looked at some pics that somebody else took of the race and I really need to start lifting my head up more when running instead of looking down. The chin (or lack of) is not attractive when I'm staring at the ground. If money was no object that would be the only plastic surgery I would consider.

Yeah, I was kind of wiped out!!

Designer puppies?

Ok, when I was growing up these mixes were just considered mutts and were way cheaper than the purebred dogs but anymore they cost as much as an akc reg. breed. We were doing some puppy shopping today at Arky Barky in Sherwood today and I had major sticker shock. $799 for a cock-a-poo!!!!!!!!!!!! That is insane!! He was a beautiful dog and had a very good personality, but $799??

Another friend in the hospital

James and I just found out that another friend is in the hospital with a heart attack. He initially went in for another surgery and had a heart attack while they were prepping him. This is the 2nd one in the last 6 months that has had major heart problems. Pretty scary stuff, esp. considering how sedentary our lifestyle can be.

39? I can't be 39!!!!!!

Yesterday was my 39th birthday, where in the world have the years gone? I don't feel 39 (at least I didn't until the 10 miles on the treadmill last night), I certainly don't act like a 39 yr old should--at least according to some family members. But there it is, one year closer to 40. Oh well, at least this time next year I'll be the young one in a new age group.



Been rearranging my run schedule this week. I came through home on Monday night to run 5 miles on the 'mill. Excellent run, practically had the gym to myself. Tues. was the Mt. Vernon loop, supposed to have been 4 miles, ended up with 3.6. Started having a sharp stitch on my right side at just after mile 3 that would not quit even with walk breaks. That was a direct result of not rehydrating properly after monday night. Wednesday was a rest day.



Thursday was my 10 mile long run. Had planned to do it outside, but by the time I got to Searcy, it was 34 F, foggy, and misting rain so decided not to chance the roads--everybody was driving crazy. I survived it--barely. Gym was crowded, only 2 of the little treadmills avail. so did my first 2 miles on one of them then moved once a better one became avail. for the last 8. So how do you survive a long run on the 'mill? Lots and lots of water fountain breaks and the Podrunner podcast--loved, loved, loved Symphonic Movements!

As of Wed. the Nike outlet at San Marcos, TX had water belts with the small bottles on sale for 9.99. Awesome deal, I hope this one will work with my body type, I've been having a hard time finding one that will work.

River Trail 15k

Does it count as a p.r. if it's your first long race? Either way, I had a great time today. It was cold and misting rain in the beginning but there was a large crowd, almost 200 of us. I had no intention of running this one fast since this was my first long distance race (15k or 9.3 miles) and I had no idea on what to expect, so started out in the back and just took things slow and steady in the beginning.


Me before the race

The crowd starting to line up

I ended up feeling good for the whole run, even had enough left to push faster the last 2 miles AND still had a little bit of kick left at the end. Hmmm, maybe that means I didn't push hard enough in the beginning? I hope, hope, hope that my 1/2 marathon goes as well on March 2nd, I'm already getting the nervous jitters!! Finish time was 1:24:05, placed 29th out of 85 women. Near the end I was mixed in with a group of women that were very supportive and shouting encouragement to each other and even to people they didn't know. That is so awesome!

I am already sore though, I've done this long on my long runs before but there is usually a bathroom break and traffic stops mixed in so it's never been a run with no stops before. The only time I slowed today was for a couple of sips of water at mile 4. This was an out and back course so the only water stop was at mile 4 and mile 8.

After the race we tried to find a Cracker Barrel or IHOP for breakfast but everywhere was packed, ended up going to Backyard Burger for chili and a burger. Oh yeah, this morning's prerace food was an egg mcmuffin with no cheese or ham and a little bit of coffee. That tends to work out really well for me. We also made a stop at Arkansas ABATE District 1's swap meet to renew our membership (year 9, I think). There wasn't as many used bike (motorcycle) parts for sale this year so we didn't stay for very long.

Chance encounter

Yesterday morning we stopped at Gurdon to get breakfast before sunrise and ran into the parents of one of our old friends. It was such a random encounter, they normally don't stop there and we were almost ready to leave. Sad circumstances for them though, they had a death in the family and were on their way to Dallas. It was so nice to get to see them, they are a sweet couple and Retta is the best cook I know. We ended up making plans to see them next Friday, it will be wonderful to get to see everybody again.

This week's workouts

Missed the scheduled 4 mile Tuesday run. Ran 4.52 miles on Wednesday at Robinson, TX, this was a new area for me to run. It turned out to be a decent option, not much traffic, no dogs running loose, and some nice scenery. The only downside is that the road surface was very uneven in spots and I did have a dumptruck driver follow me down a deadend street. I don't think he saw James at the end of the street waiting for me where he was stretching from his walk. Speaking of James, he reinjured his knee again weightlifting. He has an old injury from where he had a horse spook when he was working in Idaho as a packer. This is the 2nd time he's tried to do heavy leg presses and reinjured it. Last time it took almost 2 months to heal.

Speed workout on the treadmill Thursday evening. Supposed to be 7 miles total but did 6.3. Included 3 x 1600m at 8:00 pace with 800m recoveries. Listened to Podrunner-Symphonic movements, excellent mix!!

Need to get in 3 miles today and I think that I'm going to do the River Trail 15k tomorrow as a training run, I need 10 miles this weekend anyway and James won't be up to riding the bicycle along with me. Maybe I'll have some new pictures to post tomorrow afternoon.

Taxes are done

Whew, just finished up our federal and state taxes. Glad that is over with!! Now I just need to go file all the paperwork that I have scattered in our office and living room. Last night I was totalling up the days from our log books and sorting through all the receipts while watching disc 4 of Jericho--enjoying the series very much. We ought to get a dvr so that we don't have to wait for the dvds to be released.

This week was more hectic than normal. Had the additional Cullman stop Monday morning--was given a difficult dock to back up to, not sure why they wouldn't let me have one of the easier docks (other than the fact they didn't like me coming in just to empty out, shipping clerks like to take their frustrations out on the drivers, esp. on Mondays). Then Tuesday was sent a message that Penske needed the parts asap so I ended up missing my scheduled run. The good news was that our dispatcher did let us come out with empty trailers so no waiting at Laredo this week. Bad news is that I came out of Pulaski with no racks again so will be back to waiting again the next few weeks.

James called our driver liasion today to find out if I could have a dog on the truck. A couple of the different divisions that run teams allow the husband-wife teams to have a pet but the policy is that the solos aren't allowed them. Probably will not be allowed to but cross your fingers that they will make an exception. The company's reasoning is that they have to allow the teams to have pets or they will quit, the teams are in high demand because of the amount of j.i.t. freight we run. There used to be an across the board pet policy but some dumbass had a miniature pony AND a goat with him on the truck a few years ago. WHY???????? Why would somebody do that? That is the nastiest thing I've ever heard + it's definitely animal cruelty.

Also was told that we've lost quite a few GM lanes because some other company is running it for next to nothing right now. All we can do is wait for GM to realize that their freight is not being delivered on time because the other company can't afford to run it for what they bid.

Home

Finally got a dispatch right at 1600 yesterday afternoon, but I have to deliver Monday morning at Cullman, AL then deadhead up to Pulaski to reload. I really, really dislike dealing with the Cullman plant. It's a tight place to maneuver in, the docks are uphill (this is a problem because I have no clutch on the truck I drive, it's very difficult to ease it into uphill docks with no clutch), and the people are jerks, esp. on Mondays. James was asked to pick up a late load first at Brownsville, then McAllen yesterday as a favor to our dispatcher. He brought it back to the Laredo yard and picked up another load to drop at the NLR yard on Sunday. It may be another 2 weeks before we get the trailer situation smoothed out again.

Unfortunately I ran over a cat today on Hwy 19. I tried everything I could short of jackknifing my truck to get away from it but it was determined to run across the road no matter what was in it's path. Not counting a bird here and there, this is the first animal I've ran over in quite a while, thank goodness, I dislike killing anything.

Today's run was at Prescott, AR, 3.75 miles in 35:20. This was supposed to have been done yesterday but I decided I needed a rest day instead. Overall a good, easy run, had to make a pitstop at the Love's halfway into it though. Last night's iced coffee from McDonalds was not agreeing with my tummy. I wish they would serve it without the milk, because dairy is definitely not my friend. Very nice day, 70 F, shorts and t-shirt weather.

Streets of Laredo

.....or rather the treadmills of Laredo. Yes, still sitting here waiting for my trailer to leave the plant. But at least I have James for company now. Janie at our yard here in Laredo was kind enough to call around the different gyms and ask about day rates and then was giving us excellent directions. She is soooo nice and was asking a lot of questions about running. I think after her baby is born she may try to start running.

We ended up at Rock Gym off of Mines Rd. They gave a free one day visitors pass for the first time, after that it will be $10 per day for both of us. Very nice, new gym with excellent equipment but absolutely no ventilation in the cardio area upstairs--at least it felt that way to me. I never thought that a health club would be kept at a higher temp than ours but I was oh so wrong. At least the one in Searcy has fans that you can turn off and on and reposition to wherever you need them. I thought I was going to pass out it was so hot in there. Supposed to be a 6 miler with 4 mile tempo but I couldn't handle it. Ended up doing 4 miles of fartleks using the tv commercials for my intervals plus the 2 mile wu/cd. I wasn't this miserable at the 4 mile race in Jonesboro last summer that had a heat index of well over a 100°F. James tends to do better on the treadmill than I do. I say it's harder, he says it's easier for him, but then again he's not to the point where he's doing speedwork on the hateful torture device either. He ended up with 30 minutes of running and then did 20 minutes on the bicycle.

We had a nice dinner at the Flying J truck stop, we both had the salad bar and then split a plate of pasta with meat sauce, carrots, and onions. Sometimes the service can be slow at the J's but the food is consistently good. Afterwards we watched Planet Terror (well, I watched part of it, covered my eyes during the gross parts which was most of the movie).

Miss Petra called me tonight to ask if we wanted to get together and ride the bicycles with her and Brian on Saturday, had to decline because of getting stuck down here. Once we do get home we'll have our hands full trying to get laundry done and spending some time with James' mom. I also need to get started on our taxes now that we have all our paperwork. Petra's trying to get to do the Hotter'N Hell Hundred in August. Yikes, I don't have near enough base right now, I guess after the Little Rock 1/2 marathon I will need to start focusing on bicycle training. James said that he guessed he was going to be doing a lot of solo motorcycling this year, ha-ha. I do think that we need to look into the folding bicycles for the trucks.

Marc?

Marc, if you're still reading this leave me a comment or send me an email letting us know that you didn't get blown away with the storms yesterday. I think I've got it set up where non members can leave a comment now.

Still waiting

No trailer yet. James should be here in about 45 mins. and if he has a trailer waiting I'm seriously going to be frustrated. Actually today wasn't bad, nice 70ish temps and a sunny day. Ended up going to Academy Sports and found a couple of Nike sports bras marked down to 19.88 each (reg. 34.99). After that I went to the mall del norte to spend a $50 GAP gift card on a couple of blouses. I avoided the Starbucks temptation but made up for it with a small Wendy's frosty after my run.

I was trying to find a decent safe place to run today that also had truck parking and ended up at the Target and Wal-Mart off of loop 20. Ran the sidewalks/parking lot/trail for a couple of loops with a side jaunt here and there for a grand total of 4.12 miles. Way too much car traffic and sidewalks, my legs are kind of achy right now. I have a 6 mile tempo run scheduled tomorrow and I'm not quite sure where I'm going to do that one if I'm here for the entire day.

I also did an abs/core workout this morning. Trying to get more of a routine going with that. My back feels so much better when I do those types of workouts on a regular basis.

Finished up J.C. Hutchins' 7th Son trilogy on Tuesday and am working my way through the Wicked Good podcast archive. I am currently subscribed to 50 different podcasts. Some I listen to as soon as a new episode is released, others I let stack up and then have 1 day where I just listen to that podcast. I'm not quite sure how I kept my mind occupied before I got my ipod almost 2 yrs ago but I'm sure I did a lot of radio channel surfing.

Tuesday's run

Laid over tonight in Laredo, expected this though. I'm trying to decide what race to run this month but won't pre-register for anything because of the expected layovers. It's tough to do well on a race when I drove for 8-10 hrs the previous day so don't want to commit to anything until the day before.

Ran on Hwy 19 in Sulphur Springs, TX at 7 am this morning. Was in the mid to upper 60's and very humid. I was dying for some water at 1.5 miles in. Only had 4 miles scheduled so didn't think I would need to carry a water bottle, I was very, very wrong. Even the muddy creeks and puddles were starting to look appealing. Had to take 2 short walk breaks at mile 3.55 thru 3.6 and 3.7 thru 3.75. Didn't sleep well last night and was also having a hard time staying on a 10.01 pace. Almost got took out by a woman that had a cell phone seemingly permanently attached to her ear. I initially thought she was going on the shoulder to make a turn but nope, she was just too engrossed in her conversation to actually pay attention to the scenery around her, especially the runner in the bright pink shirt. 4.18 miles in 39:59 today-had 4 scheduled.

I have another 4 miler scheduled for tomorrow, hopefully I will have a trailer in the morning so I can go north and get my run in. Laredo is not especially safe for a solo female runner. Guess it would be a good time to find a gym that has a reasonably priced 1 day pass.

James stopped at home to run at the health club and he said there were waiting lines for the treadmills again. He did 8 minutes on the indoor track, 5 mins. on one 'mill that kept messing up and then 25 minutes on a properly working 'mill. So he ended up doing more than the 25 minutes scheduled (yay!!)

Severe weather in Arkansas

Straight line winds and tornadoes moved through Arkansas today. Atkins has 3 fatalities and quite a few injuries. James and I are both originally from Pope County (James=London, me=Dover) and we both have family in the area. My brother-in-law works at St. Mary's hospital in Rsvl and the last I knew from my sister at around 5:30 pm was that they had brought in 4 ambulances with injuries from the Atkins tornado. Very tough for that area, it's becoming a suburb of Russellville but it still is a fairly depressed/poorer town. This will be tough to recover from for the residents. Was also checking on a local news channel website and they're reporting that another town was completely leveled. James had stopped at our house to vote in the primary and run at the gym and while he was home the storm system came through our area. No damage in our neighborhood. It always seems like these winter tornadoes do more damage. That's probably not true but that's the way it feels. Anyway, our thoughts are definitely with everybody in the areas hit.

Monday drivers

Man was traffic rough on the I-40 corridor from Memphis to Little Rock today. Not sure what was going on in Memphis but it was almost as bad as North Carolina on a NASCAR weekend. Lots of aggressive drivers today, guess it was the 70ish temps combined with the heavy clouds. Humid and gloomy, not a good combination. Glad to be parked for the night.

James' run went good yesterday, at least I think so! 23 minutes and 36 seconds of running without stopping outside. He says he's still not sure about this running stuff though. Unfortunately his load canceled out today, having to wait until tomorrow morning to reload. This time of year can be erratic and we've been bringing quite a few racks into the customers with no return loads so there will probably be some layovers later this month in Laredo until things get back to normal.

This week's running schedule is bumping me up to 5 days a week. Tomorrow is a 4 miler, but thunderstorms are predicted so will have to see how that goes. I do not like running outdoors when there is lightning involved. I'm ok with the rain as long as it's not cold, but not lightning, nuh-uh.

Did ab exercises, stretches, pushups, and dips this morning. Had been getting out of the habit of this during the week and I wish I hadn't. It really makes a huge difference in the aches and pains department, esp. in the lower back.

Sunday

My hives are finally calming down, not near as much itchiness and just little red bumps left now. That is definitely something I never want to experience again!!

Today's run was 5.56 miles in just under 54 minutes. Much warmer today but overcast. Ended up having to make a pitstop at a gas station 9/10 of a mile in. Got there and the women's restroom was occupied. Waited, waited, and waited some more, I would've wondered if the current occupant had fallen asleep but every so often I could hear them coughing. Just about to give up when a guy came out of the WOMEN'S restroom. Thank goodness he hadn't left a mess, I always dread it when traveling and end up having to use an unisex bathroom. Sometimes I think guys will deliberately miss the toilet. Not that some women aren't messy too, it's just that (some) men tend to be worse. A pet peeve of mine is when mothers will bring their toddler/younger boys into the women's bathrooms then not supervise or clean up after them. Wait a minute, this train definitely jumped the track on subject matter ;-).

Almost all alone today as far as runners/walkers on the bike trail today. Just met 1walker. Lots of cars 'cause I left out at about the same time between sunday school and regular church services. Only had a couple of car drivers that were determined not to share the road. Somebody had shot a turtle and put the shell/carcass on a post on the section of trail nearest my house. Why????? I'm hoping the turtle was already dead and they were just using (stupidly in my opinion) the shell for target practice but I doubt it. The hole was too clean and if it had been out for very long it would've been more jagged (I think).

Went and scrubbed out the inside of my truck after my run. I had a banana fall into the bottom of my seat organizer and rot there. Ewwww, ewwww, ewwww, don't think I will be eating any bananas for a little while after that. Anyway, cleaned the truck, shampooed the seat, and threw away the seat organizer so no more smell (I hope!).

James stopped at the health club after visiting his mom this morning. He said there were only 2 parking spots left and a waiting line for the treadmills. He ended up driving home to get a water bottle and is going to a flat section of the bike trail to get his run in. Hopefully it will go good, he doesn't do as well outside and also said that he had hurt one of his legs Friday.

Out of sorts

I don't feel good, I don't feel horrible, just out of sorts from these stupid hives on my legs. I ended up buying some spray hydrocortisone and some children's Zyrtec antihistamine. The spray stuff seems to ease the itching temporarily and the hives are slowly going away. I went with the children's medicine because I'm so sensitive to many medications, if I have adult stuff I usually have to take about half of the recommended dosage. The child version still messed with me though, tingly fingers and toes, numb lips, and knocked me out for the entire afternoon. Fun, fun, fun--not.

Yesterday was supposed to have been a run and weight workout. Got the weight workout done before lunch but was completely wiped out so planned to do the run before dark. Didn't happen because of the zyrtec.

Went out today after lunch for my 5 miles. Ended up with 5.47 in 52:05:42. Sunny and in the high 40's, kind of overdressed with a long sleeve compression shirt and capri tights but there was a steady cold wind. The wind was making me more thirsty than normal, I usually don't drink anything on a run of that distance but I had to make a pitstop at my house at 4.5 miles because my mouth was so dry. Lost my house key when I left out, didn't have my shoe pouch securely shut. I'm fairly sure I lost it on my street, I heard metal hit the pavement but when I looked back just saw a piece of metal that I thought I had kicked. A couple of 14-15 yr. old girls that live 4 houses up from us were on the other side of the street and I think they picked up the key, when I came back through looking for it I asked if they had seen it and they wouldn't even look at me. So we ended up changing out all our locks this afternoon. Grrrr, it was a p.i.t.a.--but I don't want to come home and find out they were using our house as party central.

Speaking of neighbors, James had an interesting conversation with one that lives across from us last week. The guy was grumbling about young people today not working or voting and when he asked James how old he was (42 by the way) he then proceeded to tell James that he would just now be figuring things out depending on how we had lived prior to this. Crazy, the guy is maybe in his mid 50s and he's acting like he's so much older.

Bought some new hair gunk this week, Sally Hershberger Style Primer for wavy hair. I have naturally curly hair so I'm always on the hunt for something that will defrizz without using silicones. Hopefully this stuff won't be a waste of money 'cause it is kind of spendy for drugstore stuff.

yuck, yuck, yuck

and not the laughing kind of yuks either. We were having freezing rain earlier today so decided to use the dreadmill at the health club. Yeah, maybe I should have braved the crazy car traffic instead, I'm not having much luck with the treadmills here lately. The only one available was the one that kill your legs and I was needing 5 miles so I (stupidly) went ahead and used it for the 1st mile or so. It didn't help that I was wearing the mizunos that don't seem to work well on the 'mills (great for 5k prs but not the motorized stuff). Switched off when I got the chance but by then I was already frustrated and starting to hurt. Everything was ok on the other but I just kept getting more and more cranky. My runs are supposed to put me in a better mood--not make me ready to tear the head off of innocent teddy bears. Yes, it (I) was that bad. So when James finished his run I quit for the day with a grand total of 2.75 miles out of the 5 scheduled.

We went to IHOP for comfort food afterwards and our waitress kept coming by every 3 minutes to ask if we were still doing okay and this was before we received our food. Oh well, guess it's better than the alternative where you get completely ignored. Stopped at Hastings afterwards for new reading material. Bought "The Borderkind" by Christopher Golden, "Logos Run" William C. Dietz, and "X-Rated Bloodsuckers" Mario Acevedo. Gotta love the title!!! it's really not what it sounds like though I was almost too embarrassed to carry it around the store. Yes, I am a sci-fi geek. Also picked up the March issue of Bicycling mag, a copy of The Horse for James, and Hellcat Records "Give 'em the Boot V" cd (5.99, gotta love cheap music).

I have a major case of hives on my legs right now. The only thing that I can think of that was different was I had purchased a pair of new cargo pants and wore them without washing them first (yes, I know, bad gab, it won't happen again). Evidently there was something in the fabric that REALLY disagreed with me. It's thoroughly miserable, until I had access to a drugstore for some hydrocortisone the only thing that was helping was hand sanitizer. Which makes sense because of the high alcohol content, once tattoos reach the itchy stage in the healing process a lot of people will use rubbing alcohol to alleviate the itchies. Any suggestions are very welcome on how to get rid of the hives/itchiness. I would rather not have to go sit in the doctor's office this time of year (the flu is making the rounds) for a shot if it can be avoided.